The White Screen of Death - Problem inserting images into posts
Wednesday, June 25th, 2008Over that past few weeks, a small but significant number of WordPress users (including ProPhoto users) have been experiencing a problem inserting images into posts using the WordPress write box. What happens is they upload an image, but then their little upload box goes white and freezes, and they can never insert the image into their post.
[note: this is kind of a long post, but keep reading, there are some good tips, and if those don’t work, there is pretty good fallback solution at the bottom]
We have dubbed this problem “The White Screen of Death.” It’s a tricky problem. Some facts:
First, please understand this is not a ProPhoto theme issue. This is a problem with WordPress itself, not ProPhoto. Specifically, it is a problem with WordPress 2.5 and above. It did not occur in earlier versions of WordPress.
Second, this is not a ProPhoto theme issue. Oh, wait, did I already say that? Sorry, I’ve gotten a few emails where people were upset with me over this and could not understand that there was a difference between WordPress and ProPhoto. WordPress is the blogging software. ProPhoto is just an add-on of files that makes your WordPress blog look cool. All of the image uploading functionality is done by WordPress, and not by ProPhoto. You can de-activate ProPhoto (or even delete it off your web host) and still have the same problem.
An analogy: if you’ve ever purchased a set of Actions for Photoshop, ProPhoto is like that. If Photoshop has some kind of bug, it’s not the fault of the poor guy who sold you the actions. Another analogy: if you bought a pair of fuzzy pink dice for your Honda Accord, don’t blame the dice manufacturer when you blow a head gasket in your engine.
OK, rant over, sorry.
If you are having the White Screen of Death, here are a few support threads that might make for good bathroom reading:
Thread 0
Thread 1
Thread 2
Thread 3
Thread 4
Thread 5
Here are my thoughts on getting this resolved:
First, if you’re using Internet Explorer, try using Firefox instead. If you don’t know what Firefox is, it is a free web browser that is faster, safer, and more powerful than Internet Explorer. You can download it here.
Second, make sure your version of Flash player (a plugin used by browsers to display special content) is up to date. Go here to update.
Third, try using Firefox with no additional tabs open - just one window and no tabs.
Fourth, use an FTP program and navigate to your blogs wp-content folder, which is in your main blog folder or whatever your root directory for your blog is. Using the FTP program, change the permissions on this folder to 777.
Fifth, read Thread 0 above, and try some of the other solutions, or continue reading for an alternative solution.
If none of those things seem to work, you’ll probably need to use a blog editor to publish to your blog until WordPress gets this all sorted out. You can post to your blog, including uploading images, using a desktop-based (non-web based) program. Try using Qumana blog editor. It should allow you to post just fine. And it’s free. Just disable the dumb little “posted by Qumana” tag by going to “Preferences” => “Editor” and uncheck “insert Qumana tagline in new posts”.
Finally, if you don’t want to use a blog editor like Qumana, you can downgrade (but I don’t recommend this) to WP 2.3.3. This is a temporary fix, because you will want to eventually upgrade again in a few months for security reasons, but maybe by then WordPress will fix this bug. To downgrade, first backup your blog, entirely (don’t skip this step), then follow the normal upgrading instructions here, except use this copy of WordPress 2.3.3 >> WordPress233